Majority of water bodies in the developed and developing countries are contaminated with organo-halogen and organo-sulphur pesticides as a result of their wide spread use in agriculture. Clean-up of such contaminated water bodies impose colossal financial burden on governmental and non-governmental organizations. Most developing countries do not have an effective system for removing pesticides from water. As a result pesticide-free drinking water is still a distant dream for most of the countries. A cheap and widely acceptable technology for removing pesticides from water for the production of safe drinking water has been a long-felt need in both the developed and developing countries.
Pesticide removal from drinking water is a vital issue that concerns many in both the developed and developing countries. Attempts have been made to degrade and remove a wide variety of halocarbon pollutants with bare metal nanoparticles of silver and gold. Metal halides and amorphous carbon are the products of such degradation. These bare metal nanoparticles are also found to be useful in detecting and extracting endosulfan, yet another widely used pesticide. Further, nanoscale iron particles and palladized iron nanoparticles are used to degrade a wide variety of halogenated organic pollutants. Nanoscale iron particles are also used in degrading two most common pesticides in water, namely DDT and lindane. TiO2 nanoparticles have also been used to degrade harmful agrochemicals.
Activated carbon powder and carbon block have also been used to remove sediments and pesticides from water.